


Insomnia Boys Make Do

by stitchcasual



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (but different) is the theme for this piece tbh, Gen, Ignis is there for a hot sec as flavor, camping (but different), cup noodles is a delicious and nutritious dinner, fishing (but different), prince/shield bonding time, star gazing (but different), this fic is very soft ok? it's just so soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28458066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stitchcasual/pseuds/stitchcasual
Summary: Gladio and Noctis go camping. It's a little different than they anticipated, but things have a way of working out better than expected.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Insomnia Boys Make Do

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for the gladnoct zine, "Lost in the Wild" that came out earlier this year. Only took me like three months to get it posted, but hey, that's 2020, amirite?

“Gladio, let me in!”

Noctis Lucis Caelum, crown prince of Lucis, slams his fist a few more times onto the door—his own front door that somehow his frustrating shield has barricaded against entry. He’s been yelling at Gladio for nearly twenty minutes now. Ignis started sneaking glances at his watch ten minutes ago. There’s likely an important meeting that Ignis is scheduled to attend, but after the events of last week, Noct hasn’t spent a single moment unaccompanied by a member of the Crownsguard.

“Ignis is leaving,” Noct calls, shrugging at Ignis’s raised eyebrow as his advisor shifts his stack of papers from one arm to the other, unmoving and unperturbed. “No, Ignis! Don’t leave me here alone!”

Something shifts on the other side of the door, and Gladio opens it, pulling up short when he sees two people still standing in the hallway. Noct grins at him.

“He’s all yours,” Ignis says and turns on his heel.

All the lights are off inside the apartment, and Gladio slaps a hand over Noct’s when he tries to turn one on after removing his shoes.

“Nuh-uh, princess. Just follow me.”

“If I trip and break my neck in the dark, do you think you’ll get fired or be executed?” Noct asks, as if he’s inquiring about whether it’ll be sunny tomorrow, but he follows after Gladio as instructed anyway. His eyes are slowly adjusting, and he can just make out the broad, dark silhouette of Gladio’s back ahead of him as they head down the hall and around the corner into the living room.

Noct reaches out for the back of the couch that should be around here somewhere and stumbles and falls, his hands finding purchase on nothing. Without the solid presence of furniture, Noct feels lost in his own apartment as he lands on his knees on the floor. Instead of getting up and continuing after Gladio, he sits down fully, crossing his legs and folding his arms across his chest. Gladio can't see him, but that won't stop Noct from sulking at him. 

From farther into the living room, Gladio makes rummaging sounds, then mumbled curses, and finally a triumphant exclamation. One second later, a soft glow lights up the middle of the room, and Noctis can finally see what’s going on in his apartment.

Gladio has removed all the furniture from the main areas of the apartment. Where he’s shoved it all, Noctis has no idea, though he’s likely to find out eventually. In the center of the room is an electric lamp shaped to look like a campfire, the source of the light, and Noct raises an eyebrow as he takes the rest of the scene in. Two sleeping bags are spread out on the side of the fire opposite him, and the shape of Gladio’s tent looms behind them. Nearby the fire light sits a camp stove and some pots and cutlery. What Gladio thinks he’ll cook on that thing inside an apartment, Noct doesn’t know, but he can’t wait to find out.

He crawls over to one of the sleeping bags and sits there rather than on the floor, and Gladio gives him a gratified little smile as he joins him.

“Welcome to the unspoiled wilderness, Prince Noctis,” he says, gesturing to the apartment around them. 

Noct pulls his knees up and wraps his arms around them. He might not be able to see the walls that confine them in this dim light, but he knows they're there. “Yeah, I guess so.” He stares at the fake fire, watches it flicker and dance in its plastic housing, and wishes it were a real fire. Wishes that they were actually out of the capital at a haven, grilling fish after catching them nearby and about to fall asleep under the stars. Normal camping trip things that any other kid his age wouldn’t have to worry about postponing for the reason he did. He’d been looking forward to this camping trip for weeks, ever since Gladio proposed it as a way to further deepen the bond between prince and shield and he’d pretended to hate the idea so he’d be forced into doing it.

This attempt on his life is really messing everything up.

“You’re right,” Gladio says, with a patience for Noct’s moods that he’s only recently begun to showcase, and even then, only sometimes. “The scene isn’t complete yet.”

He disappears into the darkness beyond the fake fire glow and behind the tent, shuffling around for something. Gladio’s usually better prepared for camping trips than this, and it’s as refreshing as it is amusing to see him scrambling for things. When Gladio sits back down on the sleeping bag next to Noct’s, he sets something large and brightly colored in front of them. It’s a children’s game, a big plastic tub filled with fake fish and blue pearls to simulate water. Noct had played with something like this once when he was very little, alone in one of the overly large rooms of the citadel, waiting for his father to have time for him.

“No camping trip is complete without fishing.” Gladio hands Noct a cheap plastic fishing rod painted in garish colors, holding one of his own in his other hand. “Bet I can catch more fish than you.”

“You wish.” 

It’s hard to see the fish inside the game by the light of a small electric campfire, but that doesn’t stop either of them from throwing their lines in immediately, leaning over the game and jostling each other for the best vantage point. Noct wins the first round and Gladio the second, so they play a tiebreaker match that goes longer than either of the first two because they’re so set on sabotaging the other person that fishing takes a backseat. Finally Noct pulls out the last fish after minutes of searching— 

“Just give up.”  
  
“Never. I know it’s in here somewhere.”

—and Gladio ruffles his hair, shoving the game to the side with his foot. He switches on an electric kettle, and they sit in silence as the water heats up. Noct laughs so hard when Gladio winks and hands him a Cup Noodles for dinner that he has to set it on the floor to keep from spilling.

“Don’t tell Ignis,” is all Gladio says on the subject.

They talk, then, about new additions Gladio wants to make to Noct’s training regimen, about how classes are going and how Prompto is doing, about the new drama within the Crownsguard. Noct uses small, controlled bursts of fire elemancy to toast marshmallows, and they eat s’mores while steadfastly avoiding talking about the reason they’re inside Noct’s apartment instead of out where they’d originally planned: Next to a large, calm lake where Noct could fish while Gladio read. Then they would have built a large bonfire in the open expanse of the haven and let it burn itself down as they sat at the edge and watched the stars come out. They'd only find their way to their sleeping bags after Noct fell asleep on Gladio's shoulder, not that he had been planning to or anything, and maybe Noct would even have indulged Gladio in some morning training before they headed back to the lake. 

Eventually the conversation peters out the way it usually does, words giving way to companionable silence. Noct lies down on his sleeping bag to ease the ache in his back from sitting on the floor so long, and butts his head up against Gladio's thigh. It's not his shoulder, but it'll do for now. Gladio pats Noct's forehead once, then twists behind him to grab something else. He sets it beside the fire, but Noct doesn’t look to see what it is, too busy closing his eyes to nap. The soft sounds of Gladio manipulating a few dials are soothing, and he’s pretty sure he snatched a minute of sleep before Gladio shakes him awake.

“Hey, look up.”

Noct looks up. Projected onto the ceiling are thousands of tiny points of light, some shaped into familiar constellations while the rest are strewn everywhere in a beautiful rendition of the night sky in its current season. He raises a hand to trace the outline of one of the constellations, the first truly peaceful smile of the last few weeks creeping across his lips. Gladio’s knowing chuckle turns the smile into a scowl but not for long. It’s not what he wanted, this confinement, but Gladio’s effort to make the weekend more than it threatened to be is appreciated.

The star light stays on the whole night. They crawl into their sleeping bags a few hours later, after polishing off the last of the s’mores and one more spirited argument about who would win if they played another round of the fishing game. Noct closes his eyes and listens to Gladio’s steady breathing, their heads separated by scant inches.

“Hey, Gladio?”

“Hm?”

“…Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/stitchcasual)  
> comments and kudos are love (and fuel for further fic)


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